Obsessed with widgets

A student in my masters program last year wrote his dissertation on a business model for a pedal-powered pump for fecal sludge to be used in slums in Tanzania. He also, as part of his research, created a cool “widget” – the “People Powered Poo Pump”.

The technology was actually not so new. The student came from MIT and worked with Global Cycle Solutions, whose focus is on pedal-powered technologies (recognize the blue stand and attachment in this article? GCS developed those). The business model was more interesting, in my opinion.

But as his dissertation was picked up by the media, the spotlight was focused on the widget. Because cool widgets are a selling point.

Unfortunately, the fact that the media likes a widget does not mean that it’s going to work. As Kevin Starr points out in his talk at PopTech, such was the case with LifeStraw, OLPC, and PlayPumps.